Issue No.21 - Polo De’Marco Magazine Issue No.21 - SPECIAL EDITON(clone) | Page 160

it requires a certain element of patience and engagement from the listener for it to go into the mainstream. There’s a lot of dumbing down to appeal to the widespread nature of the population, and that’s what I am not interested in. I want to retain the highest level and the deepest meaning at what I’m doing if it’s to speak to young people and presented to get young people to get inspired. I don’t want to try to go mainstream. It’s just not like playing pop songs on the violin. Q10. You helped raise funds for children’s cancer in Brazil. Do you believe it is important to raise awareness? Have you ever gone back to the ‘favela’ where you could possibly give back to the community and teach them the violin as part of a grass roots development program for music? CS: Well thats something I would love to do. I actually would love to go there myself and do something hands-on. I have done things like that, but not in Brazil. I have done that in Israel and New York in the rough areas - I was there for one day. I gained a lot from these experiences. Raising awareness is important for these kind of issues and this Brazilian charity. There are a lot of wealthy Brazilians in London that we are trying to target. Q11. Your violin was made in 1735 by Guarneri del Gesu aka d’Egville. What is it like to own an instrument piece that is centuries old? And, to have the prior owner be Yehudi Menuhin, a well known American violinist and conductor? CS: He played on it for a number of years in the 60’s and he had a great privilege to play on a piece of history like that. This violin is very special. Q12. You’re related to Ole Bull, a well-known Norwegian born violinist and music composer. What would Ole think of your current work? CS: He was born in 1810, so his career was obviously at a different time than mine. But, he would use the violin to be a real entertainer, in the same way Paganini did. He used weird, new techniques that really made people applaud him. The audience would go wild! I don’t really know if he would be called a violinist. He would play the violin in a way which was shockingly new. It was something revolutionary, and the audience went berserk. Today, he would be a tech start-up/entrepreneur and building an incredible apps or something. He would probably think I’m old-fashioned!